to turn them into weapons that heal. >> i got an email from our physician, that the leukemia biopsy came back with no more leukemia, my actual response to him was i dont believe it. so they went and three days later repeated this, and then got the same answer, there was no leukemia. >> ifill: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> it doesn't matter what kind of weather. it doesn't matter what time of day or night. when mother nature's done her worst, the only thing that matters to us, is keeping the lights on for you. we're the men and women of the international brotherhood of electrical workers. keeping the power on in communities like yours, all across the country. because when bad weather strikes, we'll be there for you. the i.b.e.w. the power professionals. >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: a one-time republican rising star abruptly quit congress today, amid allegations of lavish spending from his office account. illinois representative aaron schock faced reports of costly office decor, private jet flights and excessive mileage reimbursement for his private car. in his statement today, he said: "the constant questions... have proven a great distraction that made it too difficult for me to serve..." schock won a fourth term last november. his resignation takes effect at month's end. >> woodruff: a house committee grilled the secret service director today over an alleged drunken driving incident involving two senior agents. joseph clancy disputed reports that they crashed into a white house construction barrier during a bomb investigation. he said they "nudged" the barrier. he acknowledged not learning of the incident for several days. >> at the least of the description of these events i should have still been informed of what transpired that evening. any time you have a senior level on the president's detail who is alleged to have even come through a secure area as he did that evening, i should have been informed and we're following up on that and there will be accountability. >> you can't run an agency like this for god's sake or any other agency unless you have discipline in the ranks. this is a breakdown, to put it mildly, of discipline within the ranks of your agency and that's a cancer. >> woodruff: clancy said it's clear he's got a lot of work to do to change the agency's culture. >> ifill: the senate deadlocked again today on a bill to help victims of human trafficking. democrats objected to an anti- abortion provision. republicans said they won't vote on attorney general nominee loretta lynch, until the bill passes. the two sides traded arguments away from the senate floor. >> i've said all along i thought the president's nominee for attorney general is entitled to be considered on the senate floor and she will be considered just as soon as we finish this very important bill. >> we can approve nominees as we work on legislation, we did that just yesterday when we passed two nominees. they could do the same to loretta lynch and she'd pass like that. >> ifill: lynch is the u.s. attorney in brooklyn, new york. she was nominated in november. >> woodruff: federal agencies have set a new record for paying benefits to those who don't qualify. the government accountability office said today mistaken payments topped $125 billion last year. that was up $19 billion from 2013, after declining for several years. most of the payments involved medicare, medicaid and the earned income tax credit. >> ifill: the united nations' health agency reports 500,000 newborns die each year in developing nations for lack of good sanitation. the world health organization says it found many could be saved by being washed and cared for in a clean environment. but, more than a third of hospitals in those countries have nowhere for staff and patients to wash their hands. >> woodruff: relief workers today reached some of the outlying islands in vanuatu, in the wake of a fierce cyclone. the storm tore through the south pacific nation last weekend. the island of tanna took a direct hit, and aid groups warned today the 29,000 people there are running out of food and basic supplies. >> food relief, temporary shelter. these are the life sustaining elements that we need to get in place and we need to get them in a hurry. >> woodruff: despite the devastation, the storm's death toll was lowered today, to 11. >> ifill: california will face tougher curbs on water use, as a drought heads into its fourth year. the state water resources control board moved today to extend existing limits and add new ones. among other things: residents must limit watering lawns to twice a week. and, if they want water at restaurants, they'll have to ask for it. >> woodruff: the glow of the northern lights may push substantially farther south tonight, thanks to a powerful solar storm. forecasters say the display could be visible as far south as tennessee and oklahoma. the solar storm could also affect power grids and throw off g.p.s. tracking devices. >> ifill: on wall street, stocks mostly gave back some of monday's gains, as investors worried again about interest rates. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 130 points to close below 17,850. the nasdaq rose eight points but the s&p 500 slipped seven. >> woodruff: and, st. patrick's day brought the usual celebrations, and, a renewed debate over who gets to march. new york city held its 254th annual parade, and for the first time, included an openly gay group. but others were still barred, and gay rights advocates called for greater inclusion. boston's parade, last sunday, lifted its ban on gays and lesbians marching. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: israelis cast their verdict on prime minister netanyahu. republicans propose deep cuts to balance the budget. technology designed to make contact sports safer. a new book explains why parents and students shouldn't stress over college applications. turning the body's immune system into a cancer fighting weapon. plus, how the generations differ when it comes to saving for retirement. >> woodruff: voters in israel cast their ballots today to decide the future of israeli prime minister benjamin netanayahu. voting ended just a few hours ago, and at this moment, it's too close to call. however, it is clear that the leader outperformed the latest poll predictions. we begin our coverage with a report from special correspondent martin seemungal. >> reporter: it's a dead heat-- both prime minister netanyahu and challenger isaac herzog projected to win 27 seats according to the first exit polls released tonight. the race: too close to call, and a tough road ahead for both camps to build a majority coalition. israel's largely-ceremonial president, reuven rivlin, has the serious job of deciding which candidate will get to take the first shot. with hopes of a record fourth term in the balance, netanyahu cast his vote this morning, in jerusalem. he made a last-ditch, election day pitch: >> ( translated ): in order to prevent the left-wing parties from governing, there's just one thing that needs to be done: to close the gap between likud and labor and to vote for likud. >> reporter: the labor party standard-bearer, isaac herzog cast his vote in tel aviv, as did his zionist union coalition partner, tzipi livni. by mid morning, voter turnout was 20% higher than the last two previous elections, a clear indication that israelis see this as a pivotal election-a close race where every single vote will count. gill galanos lives abroad but came back to vote. you came all the way from the u.s. to vote. why? >> because it's important. it's one of the most important elections in the past two decades i would assume, so i wanted my vote to count. >> reporter: at this tel aviv polling station, israelis we spoke to were split, the battle on the national stage in miniature. some voted for isaac herzog's centre left alliance... >> now when you are thinking about the economic pressure here everything you think maybe this is a time for a change and we >> reporter: ...others refusing to turn their back on netanyahu and likud. >> i am not change. why? because i am stability, and i am likudnik. >> reporter: also voting today: arab israelis, who make up 20% of israel's population. four parties united under a "joint arab list" hoping to gain as many as 15 of the 120 seats in israel's parliament, the knesset. their fervor led netanyahu to make a stark statement at mid- day. via social media, he pleaded for right-wing voters to head to the polls. >> the right-wing government is in danger. arab voters are going to vote in droves. left-wing groups are bringing them in buses! >> reporter: the appeal was denounced as a desperate attempt to ensure reelection and came amid a sharp turn to the right by netanyahu: yesterday, he seemingly reversed years of israeli government commitment to the eventual creation of a palestinian state. >> woodruff: martin joins me now form likud party headquarters in tel aviv. welcome martin. netanyahu has already tweeted that the likud party has won. we know that's not clear if that's the case, but truly he closed the gap. is it because of his turn to the right? >> absolutely. and as you can hear from the noise here attlee -- at likud headquarters, people are really celebrating the fact he did close that gap because going into the election, it did look very much like it would be a win by isaac herzog by at least four or five seats. netanyahu has closed that gap. he got those votes from the right wing, as you know, in the last days of the election. he made a very sharp turn to the right has the campaign drew to a close yesterday, saying that if he becomes prime minister under the present circumstances, there will be no palestinian state. he took away votes from the jewish party. he took votes away from the ultra nationalist party even further to the right. as a result he has closed that gap and we now have a dead heat. >> woodruff: martin it's a little hard to hear you, but we know there's a lot going on there at the headquarters. what are the opposing zionist camp saying? they have to be disappointed. >> well, they aren't showing they're disappointed if they are. they're trying to play the positive side because going into this election when it was first announced, they only had 13 seats. and according to these exit polls, they're going to end up with 27. they are saying that it's premature for benjamin netanyahu to be declaring victory, and obviously in the days ahead they're going to be looking to figure in some kind of coalition government. >> woodruff: tell us about what does happen next. where does israeli politics go from here? how do they put this next government together? >> well that's going to be a real key here. the president of israel, who will ultimately ask one of the leaders to form his coalition or try form a coalition has said in a statement he'd like to see a unity government. we're hearing that neither side off the top is going to go for a unity government. both will do their best to try to form so kind of coalition on their own. benjamin netanyahu is looking toward his former minister in his cabinet who left his party because he wasn't given the finance ministry. they have a history. there's a lot of distrust toward benjamin netanyahu, but he's seen as someone to look at. obviously isaac herzog will go after hatnuah. he's a right wing they're comes from likud. he only left two years ago. the question is will he take part in a coalition that could support the arab unity party that did so well today and is now the third largest party. it will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the days ahead. >> woodruff: so in the end, martin, we know the economy was an issue. clearly peace. security was an issue. is there a sense... do you have a sense of which was more important to voters in the end? >> well, in the end it has to be said it was the economy, because benjamin netanyahu is pushing that security line. security, vote for me, you'll be safe. so he was running commercials saying he was the bibi-sitter, a play on his name, bibi netanyahu people use. but clearly voters didn't want to talk about security. they wanted to talk about the housing crisis and the high cost of living. in the end that's what basically gave netanyahu a hard time. and he fought for his political life and made all these statements that very sharp turn to the right. that really is what many people say saved his skin. if it wasn't for that we wouldn't have the close race that we have today. >> woodruff: martin seemungal reporting from a very loud likud headquarters there in tel aviv. we thank you, martin. >> ifill: a new budget plan released today by house republicans reveals the yawning partisan chasm that still exists when it comes to taxes and spending, as the g.o.p. pushes for deep cuts and a balanced budget, and democrats say the budget needs to grow. as always, the choices are not that simple. joining me with the story of the policies and priorities behind the budget debate is newshour political editor lisa desjardins. thank you for joining us again lee centennial park and maybe you connects plain this for us. we're talking about $5 trillion in savings in this proposed budget that the house leaders put out today. what does that represent? >> $5 trillion in savings is over ten years. that represents two priorities for republicans. what they are choosing with this budget, let's put it simply is they're choosing to try to pay down the debt. they would balance the budget in a remarkable nine years, especially it's ten years, and the other priority they're choosing is defense. even as they're paying down the deficit and the debt ultimately, they also are increasing spending for defense. that's like trying dig a hole even as you're putting more dirt in it. it's very ambitious. because those are their priorities, this would mean dramatic cuts for everyone else, for discretionary funding which means most of government. very hard to see these funding taking place without government layoffs. >> ifill: that kind of austerity they're calling for, the president came out and said we need infrastructure, we need to spend on all these things and, by the way the economy is doing better now, there won't be an appetite for it. does he have a point? >> the democrats are going to come back again and say, look at what we've done. we've already cut the deficit by tremendous amounts. this is overreach by republicans. they're not looking at what america wants. democrats want america wants jobs. they're not worried about the debt as much. i think that's the debate that will play out. nothing everything is political, but there are a lot of politics in this document. they're calculating that their core their republican base still cares so much about the debt that it's worth proposing these very strong cuts, not only to agencies but also pell grants, for example, would have sort of less stable funding under this plan. >> ifill: does the budget process itself and that word "process" always puts people off, but it seems there is a reason these kinds of priorities are put forward in a budget proposal, especially one that we routinely say may not go as far as they'd like. what is the purpose for putting this stuff in a budget proposal? >> i can see our viewers saying, why are they even talking about this? it isn't a binding. but this is a show of what republicans' priorities are. this is their one chance in a gridlocked congress to say, here's what we stand for, and here's why it's especially significant, a budget falls under special rules in congress. you can get a budget through the senate with a magical 51 votes instead of 60 votes and republicans are going to latch on to that one thing they have in this budget that is major policy priority, the repeal of something called obamacare. >> ifill: i wanted to ask you about, that because this proposal, in order for it to balance out, you would have to repeal obamacare but cut back the dodd-frank financial reform legislation in place, that doesn't sound like anything that's going to be bipartisan. >> no, it's not going to be bipartisan, but they know the only way they'll get a repeal of both of those through the senate is to attach it to the budget and go through that special budget rule that lets you pass things with 51 votes. everyone knows the president will still veto that policy if it comes to his desk, but they want to make a statement here. they want to have both chambers try and passes this. >> ifill: the one thing both sides agree they don't want to cut is defense spending. >> that's right. the defense agency, pentagon, anything to do with defense which is not just the pentagon does well in this budget. one thing to watch for in this budget is they've increased funding to a fund that's just for war contingency spending. some people call that a slush fund. the pentagon says it's a fund that's important. but it deals with how the pentagon operates on foreign soil fighting terror and republicans have increased that fund. >> ifill: we'll be following. this i know you will. >> oh, yeah, i love it. >> ifill: i know you do. lisa desjardins thanks. >> woodruff: next, the risk of concussions in sports and trying to lower those odds. san francisco 49ers linebacker chris borland shocked the football world yesterday by announcing his decision to retire from the game after a strong rookie season. borland, who is 24 years old and was expected to earn more than a half-million dollars next season, told espn's "outside the lines" he was concerned about head trauma from repeated hits. >> it was just the realization i just started my professional career. am i going to go down this road? am i going to commit the prime of my life to something that could ultimately be detrimental to my health? that just kind of triggered my thinking and changed the way i viewed the risks. >> woodruff: borland becomes the most prominent player to leave the game in his prime based on those risks. but worries are growing among many parents of younger athletes and kids playing sports. researchers are looking into whether electronics can make sports safer. hari sreenivasan reports on new innovations for brain safety on the playing field, part of our continuing series on breakthroughs. >> sreenivasan: contact sports like hockey can be brutal. 19-year-old oliver bech-hansen describes getting hit so hard he lost his memory. >> it took me a couple weeks before i finally-- i slowly started remembering things that happened. >> sreenivasan: as the spotlight on concussions and head trauma intensifies, parents, coaches and medical professionals are debating how to keep players safe, and some are looking to technology. the jersey wildcats, a league of 16 to 20-year-olds have been experimenting with a head impact device donated by reebok. the device, called checklight, is worn under the helmet and features an led light on the back of the neck that flashes if a player takes a big blow. paul litchfield from reebok explains. >> so the checklight will actually fit inside of the skullcap, and it slides inside a little sleeve, and the device is in here, the electronics are right here behind your ear. we can actually identify nine locations around the head, and identify the force of impact from those nine locations. >> sreenivasan: the impact device can be worn under any type of sports helmet, but it will not determine if a player has suffered a concussion. >> it does not indicate anything about your level of injury. it indicates your level of impact, and by doing that it's up to the athlete, the coach their players, their teammates to just make sure you check in and you say hey, you okay, and you do an assessment. >> sreenivasan: wildcats coach justin stanlick calls it an extra pair of eyes. >> there's so much going on, you can be distracted, or hung up on one point, turn around, and before you know it your player is down, and you're not exactly sure what happened. you know, twelve players on the ice, it's very easy to miss something. >> it's simple. it's like a traffic signal, green, yellow, red, and at a traffic signal green is go, yellow is caution, red is stop. >> i had a little hit to the head, but i didn't even realize like i didn't think anything of it until one of my buddies told me that i had a yellow light on the back. i was like, oh, wow. >> sreenivasan: neurosurgeon robert cantu is an expert in traumatic brain injury among athletes. >> those violent shakings of the brain that don't necessarily produce symptoms right away that are recognizable as concussions, if taken over a long period of time, can lead to later life neuro-degenerative problems. >> sreenivasan: checklight is not the only impact sensor. >> the last couple of years there's been a plethora of different sensors that have come out, some of them are within a helmet, some of them are on headbands, some of them are on chinstraps, some of them are even in mouth guards. >> sreenivasan: the reebok device has field experience behind it. former nfl player isaiah kacyvenski oversees consumer business at mc10, the electronics company that helped create checklight. in the nfl, kacyvenski suffered seven concussions and upon retirement became a vocal advocate for head trauma safety. he was one of the first nfl players to agree to donate his brain for medical research. >> i knew that in my heart and my mind that the sport needs to get safer in a lot of different ways. >> sreenivasan: kacyvenski says checklight gives both players and coaches an objective measurement. >> it takes it out of the hands of the athletes in a lot of different ways, which is, at times when i was hit, and i didn't necessarily want to pull myself out of the game, i didn't want to look soft. it felt almost like i was being less of a man if i admitted to being hit in the head. >> sreenivasan: eddie pavlini sees the same scenario play out on the ice. >> a lot of times kids might just not say anything and try to play through it, and they'll only get checked out if the coach notices it. >> you can ask a 17-year-old how are you feeling, and have them checked out by an e.m.t., but sometimes they're not always truthful because they don't want to come out of a game. >> sreenivasan: litchfield says his team conducted 15,000 drop tests to arrive at the right measurements. >> we actually chose values that are based off the national safety transportation board a thing called the h.i.c., which is head injury criteria values. >> sreenivasan: but while dr. cantu is supportive of the awareness checklight and other sensors bring, he is cautious about their research. >> the various different sensor devices that are in a lot of different products right now have only been validated within their own institutions, within their own companies, they haven't been validated by independent, third party laboratories. so the accuracy of these various recording devices is something of concern. >> sreenivasan: how hard a player is hit isn't always the most relevant information. often it's the second or third hard hit that can cause the most damage. >> i don't think it's a silver bullet in terms of trying to prevent concussion, or recognizing concussion. i think it's a tool in terms of allowing you at least to know how many hits a youngster has had. >> sreenivasan: isaiah kacyvenski believes he is already feeling the damage from multiple hits to the head. kacyvenski attended harvard as an undergraduate, then played seven years in the nfl. when he returned to harvard for his master in business, he found it much harder to study. >> i couldn't go through and just churn through five hours at a time, and crank through, i had to take bites, go over it again, takes bites, go over it again, take bites, which is tough. you know, i had to-- i had to recalibrate. >> sreenivasan: still a lover of the sport, kacyvenski will start coaching his 11-year-old son isaiah junior in tackle football next fall. he says he is focused on keeping the game safe with proper techniques and checklight. i'm hari sreenivasan with the pbs newshour. >> ifill: these next few weeks are anxious ones for many high school seniors, and their parents. it's when they find out if they've been accepted to the colleges or universities on their wish list. but the author of a new book argues that all the blood, sweat and tears leading up to this moment, may not be worth it. jeffrey brown takes a look. >> brown: where did you go to college? and more to the point, for many young people now awaiting decision, where do you hope to go and how much do you have riding on it? a new book entitled: "where you'll go is not who you'll be," proposes the whole college admissions project is out of whack and even that rejection is a wonderful thing. its author is "new york times" columnist frank bruni, who, for the record attended the university of north carolina. so madness, nonsense, those are just some of the words you use for what you see as a broken system. what's the brunt of the argument? what happened to our system in. >> what happened to our system is we became brand obsessedment we became convinced or parents did that if their kids didn't get into the right colleges they wouldn't have as bright futures they wouldn't make as much money. we somehow bought that this moment in late march early april when you find out where you're going to go to school sets the whole trajectory for your life. and it's so untrue and it's the source of so much unnecessary anxiety. that's what i go into in the book. >> brown: with what result? what has it done to young people? what has it done to our colleges? >> it starts with what we've done to young people. it had driven them mad in high school. you see rates of depression and medication we didn't see before. it's also taught them a very curious set of values. we're telling them that getting into the door of something, that breeching the inner sanctum is the most important thing. one of my biggest concerns is that they get to college and they don't realize that what matters is what they do there, not the name to on the diploma. that's a big concern. michael>> brown: the perpetrators are widespread in your book, colleges for putting the brand the selectivity, parents for somehow getting this idea that they must get their kids into the best schools. >> yeah. well, i'm really glad you mentioned the colleges themselves, because they are culprits here. colleges have become businesses that market themselves aggressively send out more information. i talked in the book about ivory tower porn. they are trying to boost the number of applicants they get to their schools so they can -- it's really perverse. they want the abley cannes to reject a given number and have a low acceptance rate. that's fed this whole idea you want to go to the most selective school. everything feeds into everything else and you end up with this system that as you said earlier is out of whack. >> brown: i want to play a little clip. we went out to some local cools. -- schools. this is a young woman from high school in maryland in the application process now. >> i pity her. >> i'm a networking person so i know how to talk to people and when they hear you've gone to certain schools or done certain things with the people at these schools, it also makes a big difference. >> brown: so you hear that a lot, right? networking. you go to certain schools it makes a difference. are you saying she's completely wrong? >> no, she's not completely wrong. there are ways in which the network at given schools can help. certain schools feed certain industries, for example but what i'm saying is that thinking is very flawed in its narrowness. in the book i present stories of a lot of people we respect greatly, great business leaders, artist, politicians who have had the most brilliant careers imaginable, and they've gotten there through a variety of schools, include manage state schools. what i'm saying is to think it all hinges on that network you're going to get at an ivy league school is not true. there are so many different paths to brilliant careers and great success, and the believe there are only a few is to shortchange yourself and shortchange the college experience you're going to have if you don't end up at one of those few places. >> that goes to what i said in our introduction. if you're telling people that rejection may end up being a good thing, if you do cite a lot of examples, but is that what you would say to young people? it's okay to be rejected or don't aim that high. what exactly do you tell them? >> i would tell them it's okay to be rejected for many reason, one of which is through that experience you learn a talent more important than anything else, which is resilience. most of life is about rebounding from mistakes, rebounding from failures rebounding from disappointments, and to have that happen to you, when you're 17 or 18 and to master it, i mean, that's an incredible gift. but there are other reasons why it's good for you too, not necessarily good for you, but not bad for you. there is no one school that's going to be right for you. there are many different kinds of schools, and sometimes kids who are rejected from their top choices and end up at their second or third choices or fifth choices approach those schools with an appetite and with an insistence on getting a good education that leads them to a better education than they might have gotten at their top choice. kids who get into their top choice sometimes think, okay, my work is done and now i have it made, which is not true. kids who get into their sixth choice often go there and think okay, i'm going to make up for what i lost, even though they haven't lost that much, i'm going to attack this with a zeal, and that ends up being crucial. >> brown: we are at a time when college is so expensive. you and i have talked about this. college is so expensive. jobs are very hard to come by. how do you make this case to everybody to kind of calm down in a sense when the stakes seem so much higher, when the pressure on everybody is so much greater? >> well, because what i explore and explain and i think i argue successfully in the book is the stakes are not as high as you think they're going to be the stakes meaning where you go to college. you mentioned money which i'm really glad you did. we have wonderful state schools throughout this country and many, many of them have these amazing honors programs. the kids aren't even aware of this. you can go to a school like arizona state university, and if you're an exemplary student, you can end up in the honors college. there you will have an experience that is commensurate with the best education anywhere else. you will graduate having paid a lot less money and you're much less likely to have debt, and that has meaning. so i think w need to think about expense and have kids look at state schools, not with the disdain saying, those don't have the snob appeal of another school, but saying these are really great values and that makes a difference. >> brown: all right. the book is "where you'll go is not who you'll be." frank bruni thanks so much. >> thank you. >> ifill: you can see more of jeff's conversation with frank bruni when they discuss the extreme measures some students take to make their applications standout at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: now, to a promising medical story in the continuing fight against cancer. it's about a big change in the world of oncology: these days, there's growing interest, better results and more pharmaceutical dollars to develop immunotherapy, or using one's immune system to attack cancer cells. it's been a long road to get to this point. for decades, researchers have tried to find a way to make this kind of treatment work for patients. and now oncologists believe they are turning a corner. special corrpondent jackie judd has our report about one intriguing approach in philadelphia. >> reporter: this is your first look? >> yes, it is. >> reporter: if buildings tell a story, the story here is one of progress. dr. carl june leads the team responsible for a promising trial in which the body's immune system is turned into a cancer- fighting weapon. he and a once-small group of researchers began work in a closet-sized space, but soon will have two floors of what will be a state-of-the-art building at the university of pennsylvania. and this will be the largest group of people working on immunotherapy in an institution? >> oh, yea, we think by far its the largest group in the world. >> reporter: here is why. since 2010, a group of children and adults, suffering from leukemia and running out of treatment options, have been in an experimental trial in which their immune system cells were genetically modified to kill cancer. it is an approach other institutions are pursuing, as well. the first results at penn startled even dr. june. >> the actual truth is our first patient, i got an email from our physician, that the leukemia biopsy came back with no more leukemia, my actual response to him was i don't believe it. so they went and three days later repeated this, and then got the same answer, there was no leukemia. >> reporter: subsequent results were so convincing the drug company novartis entered into a commercial partnership with penn, including $20 million for the new research center. while the clinical trial is limited to a very small group of people, the food and drug administration has agreed to a speedy review of the treatment for wider use. tony demarco is patient 45 in the trial. the now-retired police officer who lives with his family in eastern pennsylvania, was growing weaker as chemotherapy became less and less effective in keeping his leukemia at bay. >> i couldn't function at all, i was in bed for two or three days at a time, you know, i'd wake up, eat, go to the bathroom, just getting up, taking a shower was a chore. >> reporter: last may, demarco began the new treatment. >> they put you on a machine similar to a dialysis machine you'll have one line in one arm, and one line in the other arm, and it takes your blood out through the machine, and through a centrifuge. >> reporter: from there, t- cells, part of the body's immune system, are extracted from the patients blood and genetically altered to recognize leukemia. the t-cells are modified with deactivated h.i.v., the very same virus that causes aids. in this case, the h.i.v. is doing good. the so-called hunter cells are then put back in the patient. dr. david porter treats demarco and other adults in the trial. >> this virus is very efficient at getting into the t cells, into the immune cells. i use an analogy when i explain this to my patients, that a cancer cell has a piece of velcro stuck on it, but the t cell doesn't have the other piece of velcro to stick together. we're genetically changing that t cell to put a new piece of velcro on the outside, so now it can see, and recognize, and stick to the cancer cell, and start killing it. >> reporter: days following demarcos transfusion, the velcro stuck. he began to feel ill, the signal that the modified t-cells were waging a war on the cancer cells. >> and did you kind of cheer when you began feeling a little under the weather? >> oh yeah, we took a selfie and sent it to the nurses and everything, saying guess what, i'm sick, and they're like, yes! >> reporter: demarcos post therapy symptoms were relatively mild compared to some other patients who suffer through days of raging fevers and pain. in 2012, emily whitehead became the first child to undergo the experimental treatment at children's hospital of philadelphia, where the pediatric trials are taking place. after the infusion, she was near-death from the potent side effects, but rallied and is now cancer free. in december, the research team released updated results of their trial: of the 39 children enrolled, more than 90% responded to the treatment and most were still in remission six months later. of the 59 adults enrolled, about 55% percent responded. those who did not were still fighting the disease or had died. some patients have remained in remission as long as three of four years, demonstrating the durability of the modified cells. tony demarco is less than a year out from his treatment, and a feeling of well-being is returning. >> i'm probably up to about 70% power. now i have a couple bad days a month, everything else is good. >> reporter: the sustained success of the treatment of patients with blood cancer- different forms of leukemia-has encouraged doctors here to keep going. now they are investigating whether the same approach can be equally successful in treating solid tumors. one target is glioblastoma, the type of brain cancer that killed senator edward kennedy. dr. marcela maus led the research using mice. >> here's a mouse that's been treated with the t cells that we're using to target glioblastoma, and we see that most of the tumor is gone. so that makes us feel comfortable thinking that this kind of t cell would actually potentially be effective for brain cancers. >> reporter: and the results have been consistent? >> yes. >> reporter: so, recently three brain cancer patients were treated with the re-engineered t-cells. are their tumors shrinking? >> it's the critical question in all of this, were, there's so much scientific appeal, there's a lot of pre-clinical data, there's the clinical history with the lymphoma patients, but will it work in the brain? its too early to tell. unknowns include whether the modified t-cells can penetrate a barrier around the brain to get to the tumor, and whether patients can withstand the side effects. >> we've been concerned from the beginning that the release of these compounds called cytokines from the t cells would cause a lot of inflammation in the brain, and the brains a closed structure, and if you have inflammation and swelling people could get sick. >> i will also ask for the appropriation of an extra $100 million to find a cure for cancer. >> reporter: since then, president richard nixon declared a war on cancer in 1971 promising developments later disappointed. so the enthusiasm at penn is tempered by history. >> we need to be careful not to go and raise expectations prematurely, but i think the field now believes that were on the verge where this can happen but we also need caution. >> reporter: if these early results do hold up, questions would then arise about the cost of treating large numbers of cancer patients with customized medicine that cannot be mass produced. there is also the issue of scalability. >> every dose of this is individualized to a specific patient, how do you do that for a large number of people, not just in philadelphia, but around the country, and in fact around the world. >> reporter: if all goes according to plan, doctors here believe the f.d.a. could approve this therapy for blood cancers next year, which is when the new center is expected to be up and running. for the pbs newshour, this is jackie judd in philadelphia. >> ifill: you can learn more about this promising new treatment. find a link to the university of pennsylvania's site, on our homepage, pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: this year, millennials, the group roughly 18 to 34-years-old, will overtake baby boomers as the largest living generation in the country. and even at the dawn of their careers, it turns out they are more worried about retirement than previous generations. and perhaps they should be. here to help fill in the picture: jen mishory, executive director of "young invincibles," an advocacy group for young adults, and david john, senior policy advisor with a.a.r.p. he also works on retirement issues at the brookings institution. and welcome both of you to the "newshour." >> thanks so much for having us. >> woodruff: so we know today the average retirement age for men is 64, for women it's 62. and we also know that studies are showing that most millennials expect to retire, they say, by age 65 but they plan to keep on working while they're in retirement. jen mishory, how much are they thinking about retirement this generation? >> yeah, young people are thinking about retirement today. when young people, for example, have access to a retirement account, they are actually saving at a relatively consistent rate. the problem is we're not seeing young people accessing things like retirement accounts at the same rate. so only about half of workers have access to that kind of traditional retirement account. young people, 25% of young people are part-time workers, so you're seeing fewer and fewer young workers having access to those kinds of mechanisms to actually save and at the same time struggling with things like student debt coming out of this recession. so we're looking at a problem around wealth accumulation. >> woodruff: sounds like a very mixed picture. >> yeah. >> woodruff: david john, what would you add to that in terms of how much they're thinking about retirement, why they aren't or why they can't and why they want to in. >> well, one of the things is millennials have learned from what happened to their parents, and they've seen the struggles their parents went through when their retirement accounts were hit in 2008 for the most part. they are... when they have access, and that's a crucial thing when they have access to a retirement payroll deduction at work, they are saving and they are participating and they are much more interested than say previous generations were at this stage of life. >> woodruff: at this stage. general x is the next older generation or certainly the baby boomers. we have another i think statistic we want to show. polls are showing 70% of mill millennials are already saving for retirement. 81% of them say they are worried that social security won't be there for them. jen mishory, how much do we know about how retirement is going to look different for this generation than it does today. >> i think it's important to take account of the broader economic picture facing millennials. we're talking about $1.2 trillion in student debt. the average debtor walks off a campus with $30,000 in student debt. tough to put that amount aside in savings when you're figuring out how the figure out how to pay down that wet. we're also talking about wages that have been dropping twice as fast for young workers than older workers. we're seeing an economic picture that's tough for this generation. to then be thinking about socking away money for the long-term. i think it's a question mark if young people do have that nest egg when they're looking for retirement. >> given those obstacles, how are they putting money aside when they're able to? what does it look like? >> well when they are able to, they're participating in 401(k)s or i.r.a.s if they're offered by their employer, but at best roughly one out of two workers actually has that opportunity in the workplace. if they don't have that, and this is true across generation, most people don't save for retirement. roughly one out of 20 actually does. >> >> woodruff: is there advice you typically would give david john to, young people as they're thinking about it? because i think for many young people when they look at income limited at this stage, how much the cost of housing is they may wonder, is this really something i can afford to do. >> they would wonder that yes and just as people did when i was younger, but starting younger is actually the smartest thing they can possibly do. if you start to save at a young age, you can save a smaller proportion of your workplace income, and you can actually get to a good place much easier. if you start later, you're going to have to save a higher percentage of your income, and the odds are you are not going to make your goals. >> woodruff: let's talk more about the financial obstacles facing them. we know that 4 1% of millennials have said in a poll they expect to financially support their parents, and you mentioned this a minute ago, jim, the average millennial $115000 in student loan debt over the course of a lifetime. you cited a really jaw-dropping number. that really does cloud the picture for them over the years, doesn't it? >> yeah, that's right. i mean, i think that especially you're right to talk about, you know, what we're looking at in terms of a parent, a grandparent. when young people are thinking about how they're saving how they're supporting their parents, for a while during the great recession a lot of young people were living at home, how parents were supporting this generation, it's holiestic family picture when they're thinking about the broad financial challenges, but absolutely right. it's tough when you're figuring out, do you put that extra $100 toward a student debt payment or put it into a retirement account. those are sorted of the tough decisions that young people are facing. again, often they don't have access to a retirement account. >> woodruff: david john what about people in a position the make a difference in terms of public policy right for these young people. we know congress hasn't been able no do a whole lot about social security or medicare. a lot of people are worried about that. in terms of this younger generation, what do they need policy-makers to be thinking? >> what they really need more than anything else is to have access to a retirement savings account. as i say, payroll deduction is absolutely essential to get into the savings habit. and savings is a habit just like physical exercise. the thing they need to do is to be able to move their retirement accounts easily from job to job, because we know millennials are switching jobs somewhat faster than previous generations. >> right now that's not always something that's easy. >> it can be very difficult. >> last but not least, this is true across generations, we need to think much more about what happens when you reach retirement and you have a lump of savings probably more than you've ever had in your life, but how do you make that stretch out and last until the end of your life? >> . >> woodruff: jen mishory, in the few seconds we have left, what's the main advice you would leave this younger generation with when it comes to thinking about the future? >> i think a lot of millennials are there, right? they are, those who have access are saving. they realize it's important but i also think it's important to be thinking about retirement in the long term, but also about how you're managing student debt, which is a real obstacle or it is a real question. so i think thinking broadly and holistically about the economic picture that you're facing, and then figuring out what makes the most sense to you on a month-to-month basis. >> woodruff: how old do you think you'll be when you retire? >> it's hard to say at this point, really hard to say. >> woodruff: it's a long way off, i can say that. david john and jen mishory, we thank you both. >> thanks so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally, to our "newshour shares" of the day, something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you, too. in northern ireland, in a city notorious for its protestant- catholic tensions, a beautifully intricate structure has been drawing large crowds. they're coming to see a 75-foot wooden temple, the creation of american artist david best, who also builds structures for the annual "burning man" festival in nevada. catholics and protestants came together over two years to build it in londonderry, also called derry. it's open to residents to write about their hopes and dreams on the walls. they have until saturday to leave their messages. on that day, the temple will be ceremoniously set on fire. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu claimed an election victory after exit polls showed his bloc came from behind to tie its main challenger. and, a one-time republican rising star, illinois congressman aaron schock, abruptly resigned over allegations of lavish spending from his office account. >> woodruff: on the newshour online, today we invited our twitter fans to an open discussion about race in america and the next generation's attitudes on discrimination, all of this in light of a video that surfaced earlier this month featuring a fraternity chanting racial slurs. many of you chimed in to say that the attitudes expressed by members of sigma alpha epsilon or s.a.e., were not surprising. kirsten west savali, a senior writer for "the root," tweeted that the video is not an anomaly, and that, "the casual bloodlust and dehumanization of black bodies is as old as the country itself." professor marc lamont hill, tweeted: "the tragedy of s.a.e. isn't the use of the n-word. it's the deeper institutional and interpersonal levels of racism." you can see the entire conversation, part of a series called "race today," on our homepage, that's pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at why places like the twin cities offer young people the best chance to move up the economic ladder. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. i.b.e.w. the power professionals in your neighborhood. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. some being patient? the federal reserveby gins byegins its two-day policy meeting. will the fed raise rates and for how much and for how long? many blame the winter weather for poor housing starts but is there something bigger at play? oracle becomes the latest company to see its profits hit by a stronger dollar. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" on st. patrick's day. tuesday, march 17th. good evening, everyone. and welcome. it was a day unlike other days before a federal reserve press confereny it is quiet and